Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump take different directions in push for votes

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump take different directions in push for votes

BelfastTelegraph.co.uk

Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton charged through vastly different corners of America on Friday hunting for vastly different voters in a final, frantic push that traced the country's geographic, racial and economic divides.

Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton charged through vastly different corners of America on Friday hunting for vastly different voters in a final, frantic push that traced the country's geographic, racial and economic divides.

She was to campaign in urban centres of Detroit, Pittsburgh and Cleveland on Friday while President Barack Obama was heading to Charlotte, North Carolina - all cities where minority voters are crucial.

In Pittsburgh, a city where one in three people is not white, Mrs Clinton hammered Mr Trump as "someone who demeans women, mocks people with disabilities, insults African-Americans and Latinos and demonises immigrants and Muslims".

Mr Trump, meanwhile, was on a tour of rural areas, hoping to boost turnout among the white, working-class voters drawn to his promise to bring back a lost America. He started his day Friday in Atkinson, New Hampshire, population 6,800 and almost 98% white, according to the US Census Bureau. From there, he was bound for Wilmington, Ohio, another overwhelmingly white town where just 13% of residents have a college degree.

Speaking more than 2,000 miles from the Mexican border, Mr Trump drew loud cheers in Atkinson when he vowed to build a massive wall between the US and Mexico. The crowd booed when he contended Mrs Clinton supports "open borders".

In spite of a close race in national polling, Mr Trump's path to victory remains narrow. For example, he must win Florida, where polls show a neck-and-neck race. His campaign is increasingly looking to make up for losses among suburban voters, particularly women, by wrestling up new voters in out-of-the-way places.

The candidates' divergent paths highlighted the yawning gaps between race, place and economics that drive presidential policies.

Mr Trump told his largely white audience in Atkinson that "we have to rebuild our country".

"They've shipped our jobs and they've shipped our wealth to other countries," he said. "To all Americans, I say it is time for new leadership."

Mr Trump's dark views on the economy clashed with a new jobs report showing the unemployment rate declined to 4.9% while wages went up in October. The report marks 73 straight months of job growth.

But the Republican said the numbers were not good enough, and he cast doubt on whether they were accurate.

"These numbers are an absolute disaster," Mr Trump said, reviving his argument that the unemployment numbers released every month by the Labour Department are skewed because they do not accurately account for those who've dropped out of the workforce.

"Nobody believes the numbers they're reporting anyway," he said.

As he spoke, Mrs Clinton campaigned in Pittsburgh, delivering a nearly opposite message. She celebrated what she described as the Rust Belt city's rebirth of "confidence" and economic renewal. She asked voters to "imagine two different Americas" - one with Mr Trump in charge, and one with her in the White House.

"Think about what it will be to trust the nuclear codes to someone with a very thin skin," she said, adding Mr Trump could "start a real war, not just a Twitter war at three in the morning."

Mrs Clinton called the jobs report "good news".

"I believe that our economy is poised to really take off and thrive," she said. "When the middle class thrives, America thrives."

Mrs Clinton's campaign has announced two more stops in Philadelphia before Tuesday. Pennsylvania is a state where Mrs Clinton has long had a solid lead; it has not voted for a Republican in six presidential elections.

But with polls tightening across battleground states, Democrats are taking little for granted. Former president Bill Clinton worked to drive up turnout in Colorado on Friday, while Vice President Joe Biden was due in Wisconsin, both states Mrs Clinton was believed to have locked up weeks ago.

Mrs Clinton herself was to wrap her day in Cleveland at a get-out-the-vote rally with hip-hop artist Jay-Z.